Secret Of the Sighing Mountains (The Quest Trilogy) by Iram Dana

regarding Diego through perceptive eyes. He looked at Diego’s hands and Diego guiltily set them down and shifted his focus to Sierra, glaring at him stonily.
    After several moments, Dr. Hope spoke again;
    “I think I understand what happened here. I can see that you are wearing the Ring of Gera.”
    Diego’s head snapped towards the Doctor.
    “Yes, I know what that is and I know what it does. And I also know that you, young man are going to Mrs. Will when I am done here with you.”
    “No!” gasped Diego.
    “Yes.” said Dr. Hope, firmly.
    “But why?!” cried Diego, too agitated at the prospect of having to endure a session with Mrs. Will to bother with hiding his emotions.
    “Because today you probably smashed a rock, but tomorrow, it could be one of Master Shengdu’s unfortunate disciples. I have to do what I can in order to prevent that from happening. Sorry.” Dr. Hope replied solemnly.
     
    Mrs. Will was in charge of the Discipline Room. It was in a separate wing of the monastery where sequestors who displayed rash or errant behavior were sent as a punishment. Privately, it was referred to as the ‘torture chambers’ by the sequestors. It was a dark and dreary room, divided into many separate cubicles just like an office. In each cubicle was a chair and a mirror, kept facing each other. This was no ordinary chair; it was called the ‘Chair of Purpose’, because anybody who sat on it could not get up until his purpose for sitting on it was achieved. The mirror facing the chair was no less special. It was called the ‘Mirror of Fear’, because whoever looked into it would see whatever that person feared the most happening to him.
    The sequestors were made to sit on these chairs and look into the mirror until they felt truly sorry for their actions. Diego, always fist-happy, had been here several times and would see himself as unbearably ugly guy whenever he looked into the mirror. Sierra, who had been here only once, had been aghast to see himself weak and starving, and made a vow never to visit the Discipline Room again.
     
    As he contemplated the imminent trip to the Discipline Room on top of the prospect of having a needle jabbed into his skin, Diego’s face crumpled into a mask of agony.
    “Can I at least have a painkiller, Doc?” he pleaded.
    Dr. Hope looked at him sympathetically and handed him one, which Diego gulped down with some water, then sat back glumly as Dr. Hope studied the X-ray reports hand to him by the nurse.
    “Well, Diego. There’s good news. You won’t need surgery. Just a cast”
    At this, Diego’s face sagged with relief. He watched Dr. Hope put the cast on his hand. Wincing in pain every now and then as the doctor gently turned his arm around, plastering it quickly with expert movements.
     
    Sierra, who had been watching all of this with silent amusement now spoke up, “Doc, this is the Sighing Mountains and we are on Mt. Chimpu …so how come all of your medicines and equipments are so… real ? Don’t you have some magic potion that miraculously heals all fractures and stuff like that?” he asked.
    Dr. Hope peered at him from beneath bushy eyebrows.
    “Good point, Sierra. And the fact is that Master Shengdu could easily heal Diego in a few minutes. He has the knowledge to.” he replied, lifting Diego’s hand in order to examine his finished work.
    Sierra and Diego both opened their mouths to speak at the same time but were thwarted by a lift of Dr. Hope’s fingers.
    “Wait…I know what you’re going to say. Why am I going through all this trouble then, correct? We want you to know the value of life. If your injuries were healed in minutes and seconds, soon you would all be breaking one another’s bones for no apparent reason. That’s why we heal the normal. So that you have to bear the pain, the scars and the memories these injuries bring. Hopefully these will deter you from repeating mistakes made once. Do you understand?” asked Dr. Hope, looking at both